The 10 Most Important Work Skills in 2020

The 10 Most Important Work Skills in 2020

The 6 Drivers of Change
○ All of the 10 skills will tie back into these disruptive shifts on the horizon:
■ Extreme Longevity
● People are living longer
○ By 2025 the number of Americans over 60 will increase by 70%
■ The rise of smart machines and systems
● Tech can augment and extend our own capabilities
○ Workplace automation is killing repetitive jobs
■ Computational world
● Increases in sensors and processing makes the world a programmable system
○ Data will give us the ability to see things on a scale that has never been possible
■ New media ecology
● New communication tools require media literacy beyond text
○ Visual communication media is becoming a new vernacular
■ Superstructed organizations
● Social technologies drive new forms of production and value creation
○ Social tools are allowing organizations to work at extreme scales
■ Globally connected world
● Diversity and adaptability is at the center of operations
○ The United States and Europe no longer hold a monopoly on job creation, innovation, and political power

Future Work Skills of 2020:

○ The Skill:
■ Sense making
● Ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed
■ The Drivers: Rise of smart machines and systems
○ The Skill:
■ Social intelligence
● Ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions
■ The Drivers: Rise of smart machines and systems, Globally connected world
○ The Skill:
■ Novel and adaptive thinking
● Proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyond that which is rote or rule-based
■ The Drivers: Rise of smart machines and systems, Globally connected world
○ The Skill:
■ Cross cultural competency
● Ability to operate in different cultural settings
■ The Drivers: Superstructed organizations, Globally connected world
○ The Skill:
■ Computational thinking
● Ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data based reasoning
■ The Drivers: New media ecology, Computational world
○ The Skill:
■ New Media Literacy
● Ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms, and to leverage these media for persuasive communication
■ The Drivers: Extreme longevity, New media ecology, Superstructed organizations
○ The Skill:
■ Transdisciplinary
● Literacy in and ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines
■ The Drivers: Extreme longevity, Computational world
○ The Skill:
■ Design Mindset
● Ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes
■ The Drivers: Superstructed organizations, Computational world
○ The Skill:
■ Cognitive load management
● Ability to discriminate and filter information for importance, and to understand how to maximize cognitive functions
■ The Drivers: Superstructed organizations, Computational world, New media ecology
○ The Skill:
■ Virtual collaboration
● Ability to work productively, drive engagement, and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team
■ The Drivers: Superstructed organizations, Globally connected world